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Learning and Teaching Week Program and abstracts

All campuses 28 October - 1 November 2019

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Contents

Monday, 28 October Bundoora …………………………………………………………………………… 4

Shepparton ……………………………………………………………………….. 5

Video conference …………………………………………………………….. 6

Tuesday, 29 October Bundoora …………………………………………………………………………… 6

Albury Wodonga ………………………………………………………………… 7

Wednesday, 30 October Bendigo ……………………………………………………………………………… 7

Video conference ……………………………………………………………… 7

Albury Wodonga ………………………………………………………………… 7

Thursday, 31 October Bundoora …………………………………………………………………………… 8

Friday, 1 November Bundoora …………………………………………………………………………… 10

Abstracts ……………….……………………………………………………………………………… 11

Learning and Teaching Week 2019 Schedule …………………………………………….……………………………… 25

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Monday, 28 October BUNDOORA Location: John Scott Meeting House

Time Workshops Presenters

9:30am Acknowledgement of Country Welcome to Learning and Teaching Week

Kerri-Lee Krause

9.45am Keynote address Assessment and feedback: are we doing enough?

Adam Bridgeman, Danny Liu and Ruth Weeks

11:15am Morning tea

11:30am Student panel discussion Assessment and feedback: what works, what doesn’t?

Liz Branigan

12:30pm Awards presentation

John Dewar

1:00pm Lunch and Poster presentations AAUT and VC Teaching Award winners and nominees

2:00pm Workshop Technology showcase - assessment and feedback Venue - John Scott Meeting House

Victor Renolds

2:00pm-4:00pm

Workshop Personalising and engaging students with feedback at scale Venue - Learning and Teaching Lounge, David Myers Centre DMC C220

Adam Bridgeman, Danny Liu and Ruth Weeks

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Monday, 28 October SHEPPARTON Location: Learning Space Four

Time Workshops Presenters

9:00am Acknowledgement of Country

Workshop Learning and teaching in the regions? What’s so special about that?

Karin Moses

9:45am Video conference from Bundoora campus Keynote Address Assessment and feedback – are we doing enough? Venue: 218 Meeting Room

Adam Bridgeman, Danny Liu, and Ruth Weeks

11:15am Morning tea

11:30am Workshop Teaching interactively online

Karin Moses and Kenneth Neven

1:00pm Lunch

2:00pm Workshop Setting and managing student expectations of assessment

Dell Horey and Brianna Julien

3:15pm Afternoon tea

3:30pm – 4:30pm

Workshop Blended learning

Karin Moses

Monday, 28 October VIDEO CONFERENCE

Time Session Albury-Wodonga campus

Bendigo campus

Mildura campus

Shepparton campus

9:30am -1:30pm

Half-day video conference from Bundoora campus.

AW4 245 Meeting Room

129 Business Boardroom

BGR 135 Meeting Room

218 Meeting Room

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Tuesday, 29 October BUNDOORA Location: The Odeon

Tuesday, 29 October ALBURY WODONGA

Staff Development Conference Program [PDF 304kb]

Time Workshops Presenters

9:30am Acknowledgement of Country

Keynote address Contract cheating and assessment design: Key findings

Tracey Bretag

11:00am Morning tea

11:15am Secondary school principals’ and senior students’ panel discussion

Transition to university: expectations of assessment and feedback, and understanding academic integrity

Sarah Midford

12:30pm Lunch

1:30pm Workshop The myth of ‘authentic’ assessment as an antidote to cheating

Tracey Bretag

3:30pm – 4:30pm

Workshop Academic integrity boardgame

Amanda White

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Wednesday, 30 October BENDIGO Location: HHS2 3.33/3.34

Time Workshops Presenters

9.30am Acknowledgement of Country

Workshop Deep listening and learning: essential Indigenous perspectives

Kate Russell and Kath Coff

11:30am Morning tea

12:00pm Keynote address Embedding Indigenous perspectives in curriculum and pedagogy

Venue - HHS2 2.51 Hybrid Lecture Theatre

Dennis McDermott

1:00pm Lunch Venue - HHS2 2.51 Hybrid Lecture Theatre Foyer

2:00pm Workshop Teaching interactively online Venue – HHS2 3.33/3.34

Karin Moses and Kenneth Neven

3:15pm Afternoon tea

3:30pm-4:45pm

Workshop Learning and teaching in the regions? What’s so special about that? Venue – HHS2 3.33/3.34

Karin Moses

Wednesday, 30 October VIDEO CONFERENCE

Time Session Albury-Wodonga campus

Bundoora campus

Mildura campus

Shepparton campus

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Keynote video conferenced from Bendigo campus.

AW-4-4211 Boardroom

BUN ED2 318 Education Boardroom

BGR 135 Meeting Room

102 Meeting Room

Wednesday, 30 October ALBURY WODONGA Staff Development Conference Program [PDF 304kb]

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Thursday, 31 October BUNDOORA Location: Donald Whitehead Building Level 2

Time Stream 1 DW210

Stream 2 DW212

10:00am Workshop Does in-class polling increase a) engagement b) satisfaction c) feedback or d) all of the above? Dan Laurence and Kath Hoare

Papers Reflective writing in the core science curriculum-developing self-regulated learners Fiona Bird Improving Assessment and Feedback. The use of Entrustable Professional Activities embedded in an e-portfolio to support student dietetic education and assessment Andrea Bramley, Kathryn Toohey, Vicki Barrington and Adrianne Forsythe

10:50am Papers Implementation of H5P from the academic perspective: Examples, tips and tricks for developing formative assessment with personalised feedback and active learning; from members of the H5P early adopters’ group Deanna Horvath, Stuart James, Kristina Anevska, Victor Renolds and Amy Larsen Student feedback on the implementation of H5P to provide active learning opportunities and self-assessment in first year. Amy Larsen, Victor Renolds, Stuart James, Deanna Horvath and Kristina Anevska

Papers Improving learning outcomes through peer grading and authentic assessment David Walker Are my practices inclusive to students? Emily Osborne, Lachlan Miles, Wendy Paulusz, Darren Britten and Mollie Dollinger

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Thursday, 31 October - continued BUNDOORA Location: Donald Whitehead Building Level 2

Time Stream 1 DME 330 and ET211 (Bendigo)

Stream 2 DW212

Stream 3 DW 215

11:45am Workshop Creative solutions for blended learning using La Trobe’s WebEx technology. Jim Whittington, Ryan Naylor, Toen Castle, Vipul Patel, Haider Al Abadi, Emma Fox, Birgit Loch

Workshop The challenges of assessment and feedback in group for a student on the autism spectrum. Wendy Paulusz, Livia Lo Giudice and Kalen Jones

Papers Developing a rubric-based grading system: assessment of reflexivity in trainee art therapists Tess Crane Engaging assessment in a ‘dead’ language Rhiannon Evans Using online video to create a self-assessment and students feedback assessment activity Terry Young and Kate Perry

1:00pm Lunch and poster showcase – Donald Whitehead level 2 foyer

Stream 1 DW210

Stream 2 DW212

Stream 3 DW 215

2:00pm Workshop “I have excellent communication skills both written and verbal” – Embedding an employability skill framework into assessment tools and subjects. Sue Marshall

Workshop Finding a way in providing effective student feedback Silvia McCormack and Nauman Saeed

Workshop Escape Room Learning for active student engagement Robert Ross

3:30pm Refreshments and La Trobe Academy Vanguard welcome celebration All welcome Donald Whitehead level 2 foyer

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Friday, 1 November BUNDOORA Location: John Scott Meeting House

Time Workshops Presenters

10:00am Acknowledgment of Country

Student panel discussion Supporting success for students from equity backgrounds

Mollie Dollinger

11:00am Keynote address “Kids from here don’t go to uni”: How sense of ‘belonging’ and ‘entitlement’ may inform understandings of success for first-in-family students

Sarah O’Shea

12:00pm Lunch Venue – John Scott Meeting House foyer

12:30pm Presentation Identifying risk: looking beyond geographic and demographic factors

Andrew Harvey

1:00pm Presentation Enhancing student wellbeing is everybody’s business

Abi Brooker

1:30pm Presentation Where does student equity fit within the Australian idea of the university?

Matt Brett

2:00pm Presentation Supporting equity students: a proactive, intentional advising approach

Matthew Franklin

2:30pm Panel discussion and Q&A Jessica Vanderlelie, Sarah O’Shea, Andrew Harvey, Abi Brooker and Matt Brett

3:30pm- 5:00pm

Networking session Refreshments to close Learning and Teaching week

Venue - Foyer

Friday 1 November VIDEO CONFERENCE

Time Session Albury-Wodonga campus

Bendigo campus

Mildura campus

Shepparton campus

10:00am– 5:00pm

All-day video conference from Bundoora campus.

AW4 245 Meeting Room

129 Business Boardroom

BGR 135 Meeting Room

102 Meeting Room

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Abstracts

Monday, 28 October BUNDOORA Location: John Scott Meeting House

Keynote Address - Assessment and feedback – are we doing enough? Presented by Adam Bridgeman, Danny Liu, and Ruth Weeks, The University of Sydney 9:45am to 11:15am

Assessment has many roles and purposes. It is tasked with driving learning and engagement, with ensuring students are ready for an uncertain world and for ranking them to participate in it. We design constructively aligned courses to ensure it is fit for all of these purposes, equitable and accessible. Yet, many of our assessments are designed for the pre-digital world, for the needs of siloed subjects, and at the mercy of large cohort efficiencies. Students enter university with a variety of skills and levels of academic and feedback literacy. We seek to develop graduates with the ability to thrive in the modern world and to be able to self-assess their progress and know when they need additional help. By focussing on aligning assessments with standardised learning outcomes, on individual subjects and on the amount of assessment, are we missing the needs of the individuals in our diverse cohorts?

In this talk, Adam will take an assessment- and feedback-for-learning angle to reflect on pragmatic, and sometimes provocative, approaches to balancing assessment and feedback at the University of Sydney. From newly-minted graduate qualities to building out academic integrity issues; from assessment mapping to personalised feedback at scale; from diagnostic assessments to microcredentials, Adam will take you on a candid journey from university strategy through professional learning to culture change and back again.

Workshop - Technology showcase - assessment and feedback Presented by Victor Renolds 2:00pm to 4:00pm

In this workshop we will highlight new enhancements to the LMS for 2019, H5P Interactive Content and Studiosity, that provide support for formative assessment activities and student feedback.

H5P Interactive Content allows new possibilities for providing engaging active learning for students with individual and personalised feedback about their learning.

The H5P activity tool will soon to be available in the LMS and comprises a range of simple to complex interactive content types including the accordion, drag and drop quizzes, interactive video and virtual tour.

Studiosity was recently developed for the LMS as a Student Success initiative. The LMS block links students’ subjects to the Studiosity service, which provides additional study support with 24/7 online writing feedback and foundational study support by a network of trained specialists.

Colleagues from La Trobe Learning and Teaching, the H5P early adopters’ group and Student Success will take you through the essentials for getting started using H5P and Studiosity in a gamified setting of timed activities and quizzes that will help you level up your LMS subject

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Workshop - Personalising and engaging students with feedback at scale Presented by Adam Bridgeman, Danny Liu, and Ruth Weeks, The University of Sydney 2:00pm to 4:00pm Venue: Learning and Teaching Lounge, David Myer Centre (DMC C220)

Recent conceptualisations of feedback portray a rich process where learners are able to use information from various sources to improve their strategies and outputs. Widely accepted principles of good feedback also point to the need for it to be timely, personalised, encourage dialogue, and future-focussed. However, the realities of scale, workload, and technologies often affects our ability to engage students in richer feedback processes. In this workshop, we will share with our La Trobe colleagues an online system developed by the University of Sydney academics which seeks to address these challenges.

This system is currently used by over 1000 staff at Sydney, reaches over two-thirds of our student cohort, and is also being used by other institutions nationally. By sharing a range of vignettes of use by actual academics, and having workshop participants interact with the system from the perspective of markers, coordinators, and students, we aim to demonstrate that rich, personalised, and engaging feedback at scale is not just possible, but can save time too.

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Monday, 28 October SHEPPARTON Location: Learning Space Four

Workshop - Learning and teaching in the regions, what’s so special about that? Presented by Karin Moses 9:15am to 9:45am

Who are our regional students and how do they learn? This session examines the regional context of Higher Education and the implications for the way in which we design and deliver our curriculum.

Workshop - Teaching interactively online Presented by Karin Moses and Kenneth Neven 11:30am to 1:00pm

This session focuses on the core drivers of an outstanding student learning experience online. How do we heighten online engagement through conversation, assessment and design?

Workshop - Setting and managing student expectations of assessment Presented by Dell Horey and Brianna Julien 2:00am to 3:15pm

Assessments are a common area of misunderstanding between students and academics. This workshop will look at different strategies you can employ to make assessment processes more effective, reduce anxiety and complaints for students and reduce workload for staff.

Workshop - Blended learning Presented by Karin Moses 3:30pm to 4:30pm

There is often some confusion about the term Blended Learning and what it means to blend a subject or a course successfully. This workshop will look at what is best done in the online environment and what is best done face-to-face and what occurs at the intersection of the two.

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Tuesday, 29 October BUNDOORA Location: The Odeon

Keynote - Contract cheating and assessment design: Key findings Presented by Tracey Bretag, University of South Australia 9:15am to 9:45am

Following a number of scandals in Australia and internationally, contract cheating has been identified as a significant problem for higher education institutions across the globe. Tracey Bretag will report the findings from surveys conducted as part of a recently completed Australian Office for Learning and Teaching funded project (co-led with Dr Rowena Harper), Contract cheating and assessment design: Exploring the connection which aimed to determine if and how authentic assessment may be used to minimise opportunities for students to outsource their work. Tracey will share ground-breaking data from two large Australia-wide surveys – one of students and one of teaching staff – which explored attitudes toward and experiences with students’ use of third parties to complete assessment, and related individual, contextual and institutional factors.

The data provides the international higher education sector with a clearer understanding of the relationship between university learning and assessment environments and contract cheating behavior. The surveys were conducted in late 2016 at 12 Australian higher education institutions and received over 15,000 student responses and 1,200 teaching staff responses. Tracey will share critical findings and stimulate discussion in relation to the following:

• Self-reported rates of contract cheating, and the relationship with discipline, mode of study, age and other variables

• Challenges for staff in addressing contract cheating • Implications for assessment design, teaching and learning

The findings from this OLT project informed the development an online Academic Integrity training program for students and staff, released in March 2019 by Epigeum, Oxford University.

Secondary school principals’ and senior students’ panel - Transition to university: expectations of assessment and feedback, and understanding academic integrity Presented by Sarah Midford 11:15am to 12:30pm

VCE Examinations for our 2019 cohort will be underway soon and VTAC preferences will be in. What assessment and feedback experiences at school have shaped the way they learn? What are their pre-conceptions about learning in the tertiary education setting? How can La Trobe meet their expectations?

This panel session, featuring senior staff from our partner and feeder schools, is your opportunity to explore assessment and feedback issues affecting the transition experience. Dr Sarah Midford, from School of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of ASSC, will chair and facilitate the session.

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Workshop - The myth of ‘authentic’ assessment as an antidote to cheating Presented by Tracey Bretag, University of South Australia 1:30pm to 3:30pm

This workshop will share results from the Contract Cheating and Assessment Design (CCAD) Project specifically related to assessment and the teaching and learning environment. Participants will be challenged to consider the types of assessment and practices from their own teaching experience which either minimise or inadvertently provide opportunities for contract cheating.

As noted in the 2017 report by the Australian Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA):

“Authentic, individualised and experiential assessment design has long been touted as the ‘solution’ to contract cheating. Recent research from the CCAD Project has challenged this myth. The data from the project indicated that no assessment types are immune to contract cheating but student survey respondents also suggested that four types of assessment are ‘less likely’ to be outsourced. These include:

• reflections on practicums • oral defences of written work (vivas) • assignments that relate to students’ personal experience or which have been individualised, and • supervised assessments which are completed in-class.

The data from the CCAD Project has provided an evidence base which demonstrates that assessment design alone is not the answer to contract cheating, but nevertheless plays an important role in addressing this threat to academic integrity.”

Workshop - Academic integrity boardgame Presented by Amanda White, University of Technology Sydney 3:30pm to 4:30pm Investigative pieces into contract cheating have put the spotlight on higher education institutions and their strategies to promote and assure academic integrity in their offerings. Academics often over-estimate the cost to purchase an assessment task - often guaranteed to be “plagiarism free”. Students caught breaching academic integrity standards - whether it be plagiarism and poor referencing, sharing assignments, screen shots of online tests or collaboratively cheating - often cite not understanding the rules as a key factor in their behaviour. So how can we help educate students about academic integrity?

In this workshop, Dr Amanda White will share the open access resource The Academic Integrity Board Game - a tool that uses social learning as a way to educate students and hopefully make them stop and think about their actions when an opportunity to cheat arises. The game was developed in partnership with students at UTS. Workshop attendees will be playing the game, and engage in activities to explore how they might use the game as a catalyst for student discussions around the LaTrobe rules and requirements around academic integrity.

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Wednesday, 30 October BENDIGO Location: HHS 3.33/3.34 and HHS2 2.51 Hybrid Lecture Theatre

Workshop - Deep listening and learning: essential Indigenous perspectives Presented by Kate Russell and Kath Coff 9:30am to 11:30am

This workshop will focus on what it means to have an Indigenous perspective on learning and Teaching and why is it important for all of us to understand and to embed these perspectives in our curriculum and practice.

Keynote – Embedding Indigenous perspectives in curriculum and pedagogy Presented by Dennis McDermott 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Professor McDermott is a Koori man from north-western New South Wales (Gomeroi country) with connections to Gadigal country (inner Sydney). He was appointed as La Trobe University’s inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous), and he’s taking action to increase Indigenous success and support at the University, while building a culturally safe environment for the benefit of all students. He is a psychologist, academic, and poet, who has written and lectured extensively in the field of health and Indigenous education, in addition to being a member of numerous academic and government advisory committees.

Building a culturally safe environment at La Trobe is the top priority for Professor McDermott, as part of the University’s Indigenous Strategy. “Cultural safety is more about recognising that if I’m interacting with you, I bring a worldview. It’s about self-reflection, it’s about developing critical thinking so I can look at something and really evaluate it; and realising there are always power relationships going on. That’s what cultural safety is about.”

Workshop - Teaching interactively online Presented by Karin Moses and Kenneth Neven 2:00pm to 3:15pm

This session focuses on the core drivers of an outstanding student learning experience online. How do we heighten online engagement through conversation, assessment and design?

Workshop – Learning and teaching in the regions, what’s so special about that? Presented by Karin Moses 3:30pm to 4:45pm

Who are our regional students and how do they learn? This session examines the regional context of Higher Education and the implications for the way in which we design and deliver our curriculum.

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Thursday, 31 October BUNDOORA Stream 1

Workshop - Does in-class polling increase a) engagement b) satisfaction c) feedback or d) all of the above? Presented by Dan Laurence and Kath Hoare DW 210 10:00am to 10:45am

In this workshop we outline the practical methods and tools used, the pitfalls encountered & some recommendations for future development.

Coordinating a subject with 38 sessional facilitators (varied experience from novice to expert) and 2243 students across 5 metro/regional setting with 79 workshops weekly presents unique challenges in maintaining a consistently high quality of student engagement and feedback with blended learning in online and classroom settings. A critical aspect of how this issue was managed with the introduction of student polling in workshops.

Using this defined facilitation method and a series of short structured questions provided a clear sense of expectation for students regarding online preparation for the classroom. This also served as a direct and interactive feedback mechanism for students during workshop sessions that shifted the emphasis from knowledge transmission to knowledge interaction.

Quantitative data analysis showed student satisfaction improvements alongside subject completion rates and grade averages year on year. Qualitative analysis was most interesting however showed that students felt that the student polling was one of the best aspects of their learning experience in this subject.

Paper - Implementation of H5P from the academic perspective: examples, tips and tricks for developing formative assessment with personalised feedback and active learning, from members of the H5P early adopters’ group

Presented by Deanna Horvath, Stuart James, Kristina Anevska, Victor Renolds, and Amy Larsen. DW 210 10:50am to 11:10am

Active learning is a key aspect of contemporary educational design and practice; however, it can be challenging to create resources for active learning online. H5P is a free and open-source technology that allows for the creation of interactive content without the requirement for specialist technical expertise, and thus may be a solution to this challenge. The array of content types available (e.g. drag and drop labelling, fill in the blanks, memory games, branching scenarios) provide students with the opportunity to interact with activities that promote problem solving, analysis and informal self-testing in a non-threatening way, which has been shown to be beneficial by engaging a variety of learners. If used well, H5P can be an ideal tool to provide students individual and personalised feedback about their learning.

This presentation describes the implementation of H5P for formative assessment and active learning from the academic perspective by members of the H5P early adopters’ group at La Trobe. We describe our implementation workflow, process for matching skills and capabilities to H5P activity types, as well as demonstrations of the most

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useful content types and our hot tips and tricks for development. We highlight the use of feedback and hints in the content creation to allow for learner self-assessment and personalised feedback.

Paper - Student feedback on the implementation of H5P to provide active learning opportunities and self-assessment in first year.

Presented by Amy Larsen, Victor Renolds, Stuart James, Deanna Horvath, and Kristina Anevska DW 210 11:10am to 11:30am

La Trobe recently identified a need for new technologies to facilitate the development of digitally rich and engaging online resources, due to increased offerings of blended and online delivery modes. The Moodle plug in H5P has been suggested as a possible solution to this need, and an early adopters’ group has been formed to investigate and gather evidence to inform the possible H5P implementation university wide. As the first-year experience is key transition point for students, and a positive experience is essential to student success and progression, we trialled the implementation of H5P interactive activities in a first year fully online subject.

This presentation will report on the findings from the student survey on the experience of using H5P, as well as data from student interactions with H5P self-assessment. The data was gathered after implementing H5P activities in one of four modules in the subject and surveying the students on their experience when comparing the H5P module to the traditional content modules. Data on student interactions with H5P self-assessment is highlighted, as well as student perceptions of the value of the feedback provided in H5P activities.

Workshop - Creative solutions for blended learning using La Trobe’s WebEx technology Presented by Jim Whittington, Ryan Naylor, Toen Castle, Vipul Patel, Haider Al Abadi, Emma Fox, Birgit Loch DME 330 and ET 211 (Bendigo campus) 11:45am to 1:00pm

Many academics are hesitant about blended learning—whether using technology in workshops or delivering lectures via videoconferencing—and its impact on their teaching. This workshop will report on a semester-long research project examining the use of Cisco WebEx technology to support and enhance learning in three different teaching contexts. The research team will present and discuss the project’s findings and outcomes, as well as facilitating an honest discussion of the experiences of subject coordinators during the trial. Participants will then have an opportunity to personally explore the interactive technology, and break into groups to discuss ideas for potential uses of the technology in their teaching.

The goal is that La Trobe’s WebEx technology-enabled room facilities will provide an immersive, quality interactive teaching and learning experience across multiple campus sites (including building cross-campus student relationships), that is as close as possible to having all participants present in the one room. Another feature supported is interactive whiteboards that can be used in workshops and problem class, even if only on a single site. Both approaches are intended to help implement a student-centred approach to learning through technology. Following the workshop the project team would welcome approaches from inspired academics interested in using the technology/rooms in their teaching next year.

The workshop will be run concurrently at the Bendigo and Bundoora campuses.

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Workshop - “I have excellent communication skills both written and verbal” - embedding an employability skill framework into assessment tools and subjects. Presented by Sue Marshall DW 210 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Students and teachers often refer to employability skills using the eight overarching categories making general statements or alternatively identify at the micro level specific tasks that the students will develop without linking the skill to principles and strategies. Students need to be able to identify and communicate their abilities using a full employability framework to be able to demonstrate they are work ready and suitable for a position. Embedding an incremental five level framework approach into a subject’s assessment assists a student to develop the ability to reflect, analysis and identify evidence of their skills from their work/study experience. For some students it improves their engagement in assessment tasks because they respond positively to a purpose and outcomes approach. Participants are required to bring all the assessment tools for a subject to the workshop for the practical activities as the activities will include developing a subject specific framework and embedding employability skills into an assessment tool. At the end of the workshop participants will be able to:

• Explain an employability skills framework of skills categories, tasks, principles, strategies and outcomes • Develop a subject specific employability skills framework using the workshop template • Use the commentary method for embedding employability skills into an assessment tool • Use the task and outcome method for embedding employability assessment tools • Explain to students how to use an employability skills framework to analysis their experiences to write

resumes, respond in interviews and address selection criteria.

Stream 2

Paper - Reflective writing in the core science curriculum – developing self-regulated learners

Presented by Fiona Bird DW 212 10:00am to 10:20am

Self-regulation of learning is an important skill for student because it underpins and supports the development of all other skills. Development of skills in self-regulation requires opportunities for students to reflect on their learning, critically evaluate the quality of their work, track development of skills over time and evidence this skill development to employers. Reflective writing is relatively rare in science curricula and one of the aims of the new subject SCI2COP Big ideas in science: Career options and professional identity (core to the BSc) is to provide opportunities for students to develop their skills of critical reflection. The major assessment task is a reflective portfolio (PebblePad) comprising six structured entries which lead students through a reflection of their experience of the weekly workshop activity and resources, and perceptions of their employability.

We evaluated the student perception of the reflective writing activities and investigated the extent to which these activities developed the students' skills in critical reflection. A majority of students reported that the reflective writing task helped them to document and discuss their skills and expertise, identify gaps and make judgements

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about their skill level. Encouragingly, a majority of students also reported that they felt confident to describe and provide evidence for their skills and expertise in a job application or interview. The formative parts of the assessment task (sample reflection marking and peer review exercises) were found to help students understand what was expected and how to improve the quality of their work.

Paper - Improving assessment and feedback. The use of entrustable professional activities embedded in an e-portfolio to support student dietetic education and assessment

Presented by Andrea Bramley, Kathryn Toohey, Vicki Barrington and Adrienne Forsyth DW 212 10:25am to 10:45am

No standardised tool for assessment of dietetic students during professional placements currently exists. An eportfolio was designed at the inception of the Dietetic program for student assessment on placement against the national competency standards (NCS) for graduate dietitians1. User feedback regarding the utility of the tools was poor and external placement supervisors found interpreting and judging student performance against the NCS challenging. Standard SFS and SFT surveys lack specificity or sensitivity to inform teaching improvements in pre-clinical subjects that are evaluated against the NCS during consequent placements.

Student feedback suggested eportfolios increased workload without providing the intended outcomes of formative feedback or assessment for learning. A team of final year dietetic academics led by the clinical dietetics subject coordinator established a working group to create a new portfolio to achieve high utility, increase student engagement, provide opportunity for assessment for learning and collate evidence for summative assessment against the NCS. A secondary aim was to enable generation of education data about how and when students learn on placement that can be used to monitor students in real time and generate evidence to inform subject and placement improvements. A formative research approach was used to evaluate, redesign, pilot and implement the new portfolio using a novel method of assessment known as Entrustable Professional Activities 2,3. Expert input from LTLT was sought and benchmarking of other portfolios informed final design. The new portfolios met all project aims and student and supervisor feedback support a preference for Entrustable Professional Activities as professional placement assessment.

Paper - Improving learning outcomes through peer grading and authentic assessment

Presented by David Walker DW 212 10:50am to 11:10am

The subject ‘Economics for a Changing World’ is a core subject within the Bachelor of Commerce and associated double degrees and the Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics. To encourage student’s critical reflection on their work, we included a peer-evaluation as a part of the assessment. The aim is to transform the learning experience from traditional pedagogy into a more co-designed, social and interactive experience: an experience where students were encouraged to use meta-cognition and participate in the creation of their own learning.

This assignment is based on ‘The Economic Naturalist Writing Assignment’, by Frank (2006), an essay in which students pose an interesting question about something they have observed in everyday life and use economic principles to analyse it. The intent of this assessment is to stimulate students’ interest and build upon their prior knowledge to develop a deeper understanding of the subject intended learning outcomes (SILOs). Further, the peer assessment provides insights from other student’s experiences in a way that textbook teaching cannot replicate.

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However, in the first semester of the new subject, we discovered through student feedback on the subject that students were apprehensive about the assignment and peer grading. In the second semester we provided more context on the benefits of peer grading and developed an in class activity to open up a discussion on giving and receiving feedback. Students responded positively as illustrated through an increase in the student feedback on the subject and in classes discussions reflecting on the subject.

Paper - Are my practices inclusive to students?

Presented by Emily Osborne, Lachlan Miles, Wendy Paulusz, Darren Britten and Mollie Dollinger DW 212 11:10am to 11:30am

The expansion of higher education has resulted in greater diversity in our student cohorts. From growing numbers of international students, to students from low socioeconomic status, and/or students with physical or mental health considerations, the university student body is becoming better representative of our society as a whole. But with our success in achieving greater diversity has also come questions on how we can ensure our teaching and/or support services are inclusive to all students.

In this presentation, students and staff will co-present a program and specialised online tool that aims to help professional and academic staff gain an understanding of how their interactions with students can support inclusion. We will also present iterative interview findings (n=6) from a pilot study on the evaluation of the program where participants were asked about how they applied new knowledge from the program into the teaching and/or student engagement practices. Lastly, the presentation will present a literature review, nuanced by our pilot study findings, on what university policies, workload management guidelines, and professional development opportunities could be offered and re-designed to ensure staff feel supported and prepared to implement inclusion practices.

Workshop - The challenge of assessment and feedback in group work for a student on the autism spectrum.

Presented by Wendy Paulusz, Livia Lo Giudice and Kalen Jones DW 212 11:45am to 1:00pm

The student experience sits at the heart of the La Trobe Strategic Plan which has a long standing commitment to diversity, inclusion and social justice. In order to assess the teamwork Graduate Capabilities, many courses at La Trobe require students to work in groups/teams which is often perceived very negatively by students due to the way assessment and feedback is managed. This can be especially problematic for some students on the autism spectrum who find assessment and feedback in a group situation particularly challenging.

In order to provide practical solutions to deal with this issue, participants will be given a scenario with questions to discuss based on an actual situation providing opportunities to share thoughts and suggestions on how to deal with the issues.

Participants will also hear directly from a student on the autism spectrum, his experience of assessment and feedback in a group situation – what works and what does not. Further strategies will be suggested by two staff members: a Senior Disability Advisor working with a Learning Access Plan (LAP) and a Casual Academic/Senior

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Officer in the Inclusive Resources Development Unit providing advice and support for staff on how to be more inclusive through the website ‘How Inclusive Is My Subject?’ (HIIMS)

Participants will be able to access an action list from the HIIMS website which details strategies they can implement in their own practice.

Workshop - Finding a way in providing effective student feedback Presented by Silvia McCormack and Nauman Saeed DW 212 2:00pm to 3:30pm

In this workshop participants will hear from and work with four experienced practitioners to discover how simulations are designed for different classroom contexts, develop a simulation design for a subject and gain feedback about their design from the experienced practitioners.

There has been a call for real-world experiences such as simulations to be embedded in curriculum to enable students to draw connections between discipline concepts and how they are applied in the real-world and as a means for providing effective feedback. Simulation tasks are authentic tasks where learners collaborate to solve problems that practitioners encounter in the workplace. Simulations create challenging and a fast-paced team environment, actively involving students in undertaking tasks to meet team outcomes. The problem inherent in the simulation are complex and multifaceted. However, in solving the problem(s), students use concepts, tools and resources that are used by the profession. The consequences of the team’s decisions are evaluated by the team members during and after each iteration and during a debriefing stage at the end of the simulation through reflection and peer feedback. This reflective feedback sets up the conditions for significant further learning and guidance for future learner action.

The simulation that you will develop in this workshop aims to improve feedback mechanisms, enhance student engagement, develop graduate capabilities, life-long learning skills, an authentic learning experience, academic performance.

Academics participating and supporting you in the simulation design are

• Darren Henry - Negotiation Scenario in Finance Education • Paul Strickland - Tourism Simulation • Gwenda Tavan - Australian Senate Negotiation Scenario • Jasmine Westendorf - International Relations Scenario

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Stream 3

Paper - Developing a rubric-based grading system: assessment of reflexivity in trainee art therapists

Presented by Tess Crane DW 215 11:45am to 12:05pm

Master of Art Therapy staff identified a need to develop a rubric-based grading system associated with the assessment of core art therapist competencies of reflexivity and interpersonal skills.

The development of a rubric-based grading system is an essential component of transparent and accountable assessment. One of the challenges I have faced as a teacher in the Master of Art Therapy is translating these multidimensional competencies into clear and distinct assessment items. For example, foundational skills such as; building a capacity to tolerate challenging and complex learning experiences; fostering an increased awareness of impact on others; an ability to locate and understanding personal responses to client presentation; and building interpersonal skills, are all essential elements of art therapy education.

The action taken to address this has been to develop rubrics associated with different experiential assessment tasks that aim to assess these relational and reflective competencies. I will be drawing on the development of rubrics from two subjects, PHE4ASA and PHE4ASB. These rubrics have had several iterations and have been refined in consultation with teaching staff and in response to SFS data.

Key assessment lessons that will be discussed include issues such as the importance of linking reflexive capacities with tangible, visible actions that demonstrate a synthesis of the assessment domain. Descriptions of complex reflexive phenomena such as insight are defined in clear, pragmatic language. The responsiveness of a rubric is bolstered by imbedding a range of ways that students can demonstrate their learning.

Paper - Engaging assessment in a ‘dead’ language

Presented by Rhiannon Evans DW 215 12:10am to 12:30pm

Assessing the first semester of a language no longer spoken, such as Latin, often results in a series of quizzes and tests, as students are required to memorise vocabulary and verb forms, and to apply that knowledge in different contexts. Some students have a relatively good command of the forms, but struggle under test conditions. In addition, the amount of language knowledge which can be acquired in one semester limits the students to the translation of artificially constructed Latin.

Students were asked to find a primary source in Latin and to explain this text to a popular audience as e.g. a blog post, podcast, a leaflet, or even a board game. The task included some grammatical analysis of Latin words, in order to ensure engagement with language study. The assessment required students to engage with an unalloyed ancient source, rather than textbook Latin, and allowed them to see what they had learned in just nine weeks of language learning. It also involved research skills, often using digital tools, to find the primary source.

The Latin students designed a surprisingly engaging array of materials, with some beautiful brochures, videos, websites and podcasts, and they performed consistently well in the language analysis segment of the assessment.

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Paper - Using online video to create a self-assessment and student feedback assessment activity

Presented by Terry Young and Kate Perry DW 215 12:30am to 1:00pm

This presentation will explore opportunities to facilitate student self-assessment and collect comprehensive student feedback on the assessment activity. Using an example from a subject Exercise Programming & Prescription for People with Special Considerations, this presentation will describe how the activity was designed to measure students’ ability to demonstrate skills competency. The presentation will also discuss the challenges encountered in developing this activity – more specifically, re-designing an assessment activity normally conducted in a face to face environment and assessed under academic observation for blended delivery mode.

An alternative solution was designed with the use of video submission and assessment conducted online. The students were asked to record their coaching performance using video, provide a risk assessment and a session plan. In addition to these requirements, the students were also asked to self-assess against the marking criteria for the task and reflect about their performance and their personal thoughts about the usefulness of the task. The resultant data collected is a rich set of information about each individual student, their level of engagement in the task and provided valuable qualitative feedback for the academic. This methodology guides the student to engage with the marking criteria, facilitates personal reflection on learning achieved in the activity and informs the academic of the level of student engagement and how to improve the assessment task.

Workshop - Escape Room learning for active student engagement Presented by Robert Ross DW 215 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Students tend to learn more effectively when they are actively engaged. This workshop focusses on embedding escape room-based activities within the classroom to create a highly engaging learning activity which fosters teamwork and peer learning. Participants will get an overview of what educational escape rooms are, how they can create their own, the decoder box used to drive the activity and the scope of different activities which are possible. To date these escape rooms have been used across engineering, mathematics and biochemistry, but have wide application across many different disciplines. Participants will also get to take part in an escape room activity to experience how the activity works (participants will not be physically restrained or locked in a room and will work together on tables to solve problems as teams). As a result of this workshop participants should be equipped to create their own escape room activities to communicate key discipline knowledge in a way which fosters active peer supported learning.

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